Twitter “Followers” Should Be WAY More Than Following April 9, 2009

The general consensious of the people writing the Twitter manuals on “how to” and “what is” appropriate in TwitterLand, might need to reconsider their follower/following number guidelines. Those guidelines currently recommend that you should have about an equal portion of follower to following or else you are considered a spammer (following more than are following you) or a celebrity (have more followers than following).

Corporations & brands that want to really be a part of the social media uprise, need to LISTEN & ENGAGE! But, not in a spammy way. Be there for us when we cry out & have a need. Be there for us when we are talking about certain subjects. Be there when we have a request or question about YOUR PRODUCT (or a competitors!-but be nice).

Because I have been on both the consumer side of Twitter & the represenative of a company listening for those cries, I give you my following examples:

Me as the Consumer: Tuesday of this week @digitalvision tweeted out the following:

He was either searching for key words and or competitors and found our conversation. He was not spammy, but very kind & gentle on suggesting that I check out oovoo.

My Results: THAT my friends,is how you engage. I pinged him back, said thank you for the OOVOO suggestion (which I have since checked out) and that I appreciated his engagement & am considering using! (cost to Co? 2 min of his time to find & tweet me…ROI? Much better than a click through rate!)

When/If the ball is in the COMPANIES court (or is it, when the Twal is in the companies Twort?)

Me as the Company: For three months I was the Social Media Sales & Marketing Specialist for @TSheets. I was all over Twitter searching for mentions, recommendations & critiques of @Tsheets. I also searched keywords such as “time tracking”, “time tracker”, “time card” etc. Since 60% of the current customer base was tech, it was a good place to look.

My results? Conversations with potential customers and engagement with those looking for help…in a NON-Spammy way of course. Our Twitter follower numbers never dropped because I was human & respected peoples time. I would read our customers blogs when they Tweeted them out and respond if I had something relevant to add (this is a WHOLE other blog on how a Social Media Marketer should engage in all platforms – stay tuned).

My Tip of The Day? Use Search & Learn how to use “operators” well. Don’t be spammy, be human, be helpful. And Consumers, it is ok to have a skewed number of followers, if the man a caring company is listening in TwitterLand, it is better for all of us as consumers in the end.